Glen Mills just forwarded this one:
Olympic nightmare: A red tide in the Yellow Sea
BEIJING: With less than six weeks before it plays host to the Olympic sailing regatta, the city of Qingdao has mobilized thousands of people and an armada of small boats to clean up an algae bloom that is choking large stretches of the coastline and threatening to impede the Olympic competition.
www.iht.com/.../china.php
Then there was this:
Olympics clean-up Chinese style: Inside Beijings shocking death camp for cats
Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.
www.dailymail.co.uk/.../Olympics-clean-Chinese-style-Inside-Beijings-shocking-death-camp-cats.html
This was early on, but it sounds like they will have as much as half the amount of cars on the road by banning all government workers from driving:
Olympians air a gripe about Beijing
March 12, 2008
Matt Reed was 1,500 meters into the last segment of the triathlon when he found himself gasping for oxygen. His legs were still pounding away at the pavement, his body pumped up after cruising through the swimming and cycling contests, but his lungs were shutting down.
The 32-year-old triathlete from Boulder, Colo., blames air pollution for triggering his asthma attack during the September track meet.
articles.latimes.com/.../fg-olyair12
Oh, and here's another bothersome thing about the cat folks. They all have at least one cat named Daisy or Snowball or Socks. And, the really odd ones will name their cat Mr. So and So or Mrs. So and So.
I have to admit, our next door neighbor's cat was pretty cool, he just died, kind of sad.
My cat(may he rest in peace) was named Charlie, thankyouverymuch. So now I have a dog named Rosie. Charlie, Rosie, what movie, chime in everyone.
It's no wonder cats are generally malevolent beings if they get such silly names.
Mr Furball
Cottonfeet
Sooty
GAH!
Rex
Rover
Ben
Buddy.
Much better names and suited to dogs, and at least they love you.
One dog is all you need.
We have one too, and he thinks he's a cat. But you're right, cat people can and do act strangely.
I am very guilty of talking baby talk to our cats. They're very friendly and purr all the time.
Every so often you see the random cat lady in the news...who's been housing like 100 or more.
That's not only weird...but stinky.
China is not the only country in the world with pet overpopulation problems. The US probably euthanizes more pets than China at the moment. The following statistics are from the American Humane Society's website:
Using the National Council's numbers from 1997 and estimating the number of operating shelters in the United States to be 3,500 (the exact number of animal shelters operating in the United States does not exist), here are the statistics:
Of the 1,000 shelters that replied to the National Council's survey, 4.3 million animals were handled.
In 1997 roughly 64% of the total number of animals that entered shelters were euthanized -- approximately 2.7 million animals in just these 1,000 shelters.
I just took a snippet from the statistics page, but the link above points to the same page that I quoted from.
China also isn't the only country in the world to have red tide issues. Is there some parade of cats at opening ceremonies? Why are we talking about cats? Cats are strange animals.
This thread is getting way too political for me. In fact being a member of the Anti Feline Slaughter Party (AFS) for short, I find it very offensive that the other side gets any discussion.
athens had the same issues, they rounded up the stray dogs and cats who roam because the owners didn't fix them(they claim it is a cultural issue), and killed them. iwannafly, as far as euthanization in the US, don't get me on my soapbox about animal rights... it is a tragedy that people don't spay and neuter. noone here to my knowledge is culling or eatingcats. :rant3: i work as a translator /interpreter for olympic games and international sporting events, and did not work greece and would not step foot in china because of the animal and human rights issues:rant3::mad::soapbox::soapbox:
Is there some parade of cats at opening ceremonies?
:rofl:
THAT would be a sight to see. Ours is a classic marriage of a dog person (me) and a cat person (my wife). Although I have come to appreciate their quirkiness and admire their unabashed self-centeredness, any cat worth its salt wouldn't bother to hide its disdain for such herd-like behavior.
Although China's pollution problems are pretty staggering, and for the most part worse than we face in the US, we do have our own problems with red tides off the US coasts. Not to mention the occasional outbreak of Pfiesteria ("the cell from hell")...
